Mediterranean Union
* }}}} The Mediterranean Union (also known as the MU '''or the '''Med) is a regional bloc and a conglomerate mainly based in Europe and parts of Northern Africa. The Mediterranean Union that largely dominated Europe following the World War III, and its members states has been continuously the home of influential and successful European artists, philosophers, musicians, sportspeople, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, and inventors. Sometimes, it has the capability to rival Mexico in space-age capabilities. 'History' 'Origins' The turn of the 21st Century saw southern Europe enter into the worst Depression in a century, the perfect storm of a sovereign debt crisis, a declining population and contracting markets from German exports. One by one, the nation's of southern Europe struck out on their own to protect themselves from everything the EU was telling them was actually a good thing: Free Trade, a single market, a common currency, a united financial system, all these things benefited the European core countries of Germany, France, and the Low countries, but were a disaster to the less industrial Mediterranean nations. The free travel policies that defined the union's efforts to tear down nationalist barriers trapped millions of Middle-Eastern refugees in nations that didn't want them, as Northern European countries, at first hungry for cheap labor, voted to close their borders and leave Southern European and North Africa holding the bags. By the time the South Greenland Ice Sheet slipped into the Atlantic, many southern Europeans were sick to the teeth with their richer neighbors forcing them to shoulder the burden of a union that Greece and the Catlans had the good sense to leave. The mass die off of fish following the desalination of the Atlantic, and the subsequent food shortages were the final straw that led to the Revolutions of 2027, which saw southern Italy's successful bid for separation, along with Corsica, and Sardinia; Serbia's war with Bosnia and Croatia (partly spurred by Turkish and Polish proxies). To prosper in the 21st Century, the Mediterraneans saw no other option than to emulate the example of their ancestors. Those that had gotten rich off the Great Flowering of the Sahara established themselves as the oligarchs over a new currency and trade union, crafted largely to support their own business interests. The governments they controlled, and the society they shaped reflected an romantic view of 19th Century social norms; some might say a reaction to the perceived decadence of the American over-culture that had long since defined life in contemporary Europe. Along with social structures lifted from the 19th century, the market lords of the MU lifted the political system from ancient history, using their own status as non-government leaders to secure territory in port cities in the region and around the world. The Refreeze brought with it the restoration of Earth's sea levels to their pre-anthropocene state, but also breathed new life into the Sahara. The new megalakes, inland seas, and rivers carved out of their prehistoric basins fed what has been called the Great Blossoming in Africa. Deserts turned to Savannah, and the new rivers fed farmland, while the inland seas brought fishing industry and the means to ship the bounty of Africa to Mediterranean ports. Riches from these long ignored lands fed a string of independence movements and wars, kept in check only by the Turks and occasionally the Americans. 'Foundation and Rise' Despite this period of instability, the dynamism of the New Sahara attracted investments from Southern Europe. After a generation of economic depression, separatist movements, nationalist purges, and population decline, the South had finally managed to find some sense of economic normalcy, at least compared to the communitarian balancing act of the Intermarium or the American subsidized welfare states of Atlantic Europe. These investments in North African ports and shipping generated wealth that was in turn spent on goods from North Africa, which in turn spurred more growth. The mastermind and forefather of the Mediterranean Union is Christian Lemma, a former Italian Prime Minister (2061-2073) and Politician, who was unsatisfied with American over-culture and wishes to push for a type of European-dominated union (although via Italy and Sicily). He contacted powerful politicians and business executives in many countries around the Mediterranean to help start a push for a economic confederacy by the mid 2070s. Talks and gatherings began to become more frequent to soon draw up a plan for the new union. In 2076 these trade partners came together to form the Mediterranean Union, less of a trade bloc and more of a pseudo-oligarchy governed by the would-be aristocrats who made their fortunes from Africa’s economic boom. 'Guardiola Incident and Decline' 'Collapse' 'Legacy' Category:European Organizations